The Great Techover (Part Two)

“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology...” - Edward O. Wilson

Considering the driving force of addiction to growth in our capitalistic system, the commercialization of media for mass marketing was inevitable. The first use of radio advertising occurred on August 22, 1922, at the New York City radio station, WEAF (owned by AT&T). A real estate business known as the Queessboro Corporation was advertising a new apartment complex in Jackson Heights. This was referred to at the time as “toll broadcasting.” The first known advertising on TV was in July 1941, during a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The ad was for Bulova watches, and it lasted for just over a minute.

The first use of advertising on the internet occured on October 27, 1994. It was a banner ad on a HotWired web page that AT&T bought for a three month period from HotWired for $30,000. The banner had the words “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will,” and many people did. The mysterious banner led to a page where visitors could click links to view information about landmarks and museums around the world, highlighting the internet’s ability to transport you to different locations virtually.

In 2005-2006 Facebook introduced an advertising platform that allowed advertisers to target users based on their age, location, and interests. In 2007-2008 both Twitter and YouTube introduced advertising options. Twitter offered Promoted Tweets and YouTube introduced TrueView ads.

Although no one “owns” the internet, its gradual development was largely paid for by taxpayers and its primary use was envisioned to be for the public good, not for the exploitation and profit of a few private companies - who should at least be paying rent.

As mentioned earlier in this writing, the first successful multi-computer network connection was between four American universities.

In Part Three of this writing I will cover the development of the Internet in great detail; mainly crediting those whose achievements (in combination, over time) led to what we have today.

Mass marketing, once a megaphone for anyone who might be listening, has now become a micro-targeting phenomenon of uncanny sophistication and accuracy. Data science analysis of all the digital crumbs you leave behind on the internet, the hours and activities of your willing participation, have become a sophisticated psychological profile that probably knows you better than you know yourself. This not only makes you vulnerable to commercial exploitations, but to the possibility of social and political manipulation as well.

As for how you may be courted and influenced, this is the way Christopher Wylie (whistleblower on Cambridge Analytica) put it when talking about how Facebook can use what it knows about its users. “Imagine for a second that we’re on a blind date”, says Wylie. “As soon as we sit down, I start telling you how much I love your favorite musicians and movies, and how I have the same goals and struggles as you. In that moment I sound perfect for you. But later you realize that the only reason I sound perfect is that I’ve spent two years reading your messages, following you around and talking to your friends.”

What is happening here, according to Shoshana Zuboff, Professor Emerita at Harvard Business School, is a prime example of Surveillance Capitalism.

“Just as industrial civilization flourished at the expense of nature and now threatens to cost us the Earth, an information civilization shaped by surveillance capitalism and its new instrumentation power will thrive at the expense of human nature and will threaten to cost us our humanity....

“Surveillance capitalists know everything about us, whereas their operations are designed to be unknowable to us. They accumulate vast domains of new knowledge from us, but not for us. They predict our futures for the sake of others’ gain, not ours.” (Shoshana Zuboff -The Age of Surveillance Capitalism)

In 2019 Mark Zuckerberg paid a record breaking $5 billion dollar penalty for sharing the information of 87 million American users with Cambridge Analytica, probably Russian Intelligence and who knows who else.

“FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra complained that the penalty provided “blanket immunity” for Facebook executives “and no real restraints on Facebook’s business model” and does “not fix the core problems that led to these violations” or limit Facebook’s ability to collect data....

“Several lawmakers criticized the settlement. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called it “a fig leaf” that offers “no accountability for top executives.”... “By relying on a monetary fine to deter Facebook, the FTC has failed to heed history’s lessons. Facebook has already written this penalty down as a one-time-cost in return for the extraordinary profits reaped from a decade of data misuse,” said Blumenthal, a Democrat. Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri also criticized the deal, saying it “does nothing to hold executives accountable. It utterly fails to penalize Facebook in any effective way.” - WASHINGTON (Reuters) July 24, 2019

I wish to God the gaslighting politicians in the above quotes would actually DO something. Google, Apple, Facebook; all are able to track and record your every move on your phone or computer. And since the daily business of our lives, social and otherwise, is so dependent on these devices, our participation in our own exploitation is guaranteed. Our life experience becomes behavioral data - which in turn is bundled into a product that predicts our future behavior - which in turn can be traded in a futures market that has made the surveillance capitalists mentioned above enormously wealthy.

You Don’t Have a Chance

Regardless of the amazing advances AI may bring to humanity, unless it is contained and directed toward the common good, it is a threat beyond belief. In the not-so-distant future, in the hands of surveillance capitalists, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will most likely be present in the form of conversational media, interactive and adaptive informational agents designed just for you.

The pleasant face you see on your phone or monitor, the voice you hear as you engage in comfortable free flowing conversations are just for you. And whatever interaction you have initiated will be under the smooth control of the digital entity that is ostensibly at your service. Yes, you will be amazed at how easily the answers to your queries come, how fast and certain your needs are addressed, but that you are in control is the illusion intended by those who profit by manipulating you beyond your knowledge.

The digital entity before you has read every book ever published on psychology and the subtle skills of persuasion. Your actions and reactions will be read every second, at super-human speed. Your voice, reasoning, facial expressions, posture; all will provide a feedback loop to which your digital companion can adapt whatever its strategy at super-human speed. Never forget that a few of the largest companies in the world have based their enormous wealth on you as a product. And never forget that compared to this super human agent, you don’t have a chance.

It bothers me deeply that there may be millions of consumers for whom this arrangement is acceptable, who say “I have nothing to hide” as though being an open book to surveillance capitalism is okay. As these consumers continue to use these technologies to improve and streamline their lives, they may be more and more willing to outsource decision-making and personal autonomy to their digital tools. I wonder how many of these citizens truly understand the extent to which their lives can be dictated and are still okay with the arrangement - probably more than I care to believe.

AI Should Be Developed Not-For-Profit

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit with the mission to “ADVANCE DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE WAY THAT IS MOST LIKELY TO BENEFIT HUMANITY AS A WHOLE.” The founders, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman stated the further goal of developing Artificial Generl Intelligence in a SAFE way, letting the world know there were powerful dangers inherent in this development. Eventually, giving in to the desire for funds to cover growing expenses, the company split into a first of a kind structure, with a non-profit board - OpenAI, Inc. 501(c)(3) public charity to oversee OpenAI Global LLC (capped profit company).

The commitment to return to its non-profit mission when OpenAI reaches the point of AGI has been challenged by Elon Musk, among others. The non-profit board is currently comprised of Independent Directors Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo (plus Microsoft as a non-voting member). How this all works out remains to be seen. It occurs to me that a healthy, regulated relationship between public and private endeavors, utilizing the best features of both approaches, may be the ultimate answer.

For the sake of the planet and that of humanity, it seems obvious that AGI should not be in the hands of a for-profit company. First of all is the imbalance of powerfully subtle and manipulative applications that far exceed the comprehension of those upon whom they can be used. The same sophisticated and effective subliminal influence that can be used to nudge a consumer toward a particular product can also be used to influence unsuspecting citizens to act against their own best interests.

If that’s not enough, consider the insane amount of fresh water (drinking water) and electricity that is required as mega companies compete for advantage and duplicate massive data centers for the ever-increasing amount of computer equipment they each must generate, thereby creating a strain on the environment by using several times more water and electricity than may otherwise be necessary. These resources are measured in trillions of gallons of fresh water and many thousands of megawatts.

In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council first recognized access to safe drinking water as a human right. Yet 2 billion people around the world continue to lack access to safe drinking water.

The potential good for humanity that is inherent in the development of AI will not be the foremost concern of the companies that develop it for maximum profit. The products and services they provide, astonishing as they may be, are in fact more like secret weapons (Trojan Horses) that are engineered for the exploitation and control of their consumers.

Although it will be argued that the funds and energy generated by corporate competition is absolutely necessary for the advancement of such far reaching technologies as AGI and synthetic biology (robotics), this failure of imagination needs to be examined in the light of how best to develop these dangerously potent new technologies for the benefit and profit of all humankind.

However, the value of these companies in September of 2026 reveals who in fact is in control and reaps the rewards: Microsoft ($4.09 – $4.10 Trillion). Apple ($4.61 – $4.70 Trillion), Nvidia ($5.45 – $5.60 Trillion), Saudi Arabian Oil ($1.67 – $1.87 Trillion), Amazon ($2.36 – $2.78 Trillion), Alphabet - Google ($4.09 – $4.10 Trillion), and Meta Platforms - Facebook ($1.84 Trillion).

The following is from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961, an amazing insight into the dangerous power of a coming technocracy.

“In holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system - ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”

© Rabon Saip 2026